1. One actress. One take. Fourteen hours.

While most streaming platforms are busy optimizing their skip-intro buttons, BritBox and Uncommon Creative Studio went full marathon mode with a 90-second ad that took 14 hours to film, in a single take. One superhuman actress shape-shifts through four characters: from Downton Abbey aristocrat to literal skeleton, then quick-changes into a brooding train passenger before finishing as a stern police officer. Meanwhile, 50 crew members played their own version of “Extreme Makeover: Film Set Edition” across 11 backdrops.

In an era where AI can whip up the Mona Lisa holding avocado toast in milliseconds, BritBox chose to go analog, capturing 53,000 individual frames the old-school way. The spot doesn’t just promote shows, it mirrors what makes them great: sharp characters, smart pacing, and serious production chops.

2. Dogs shouldn’t smell like a piña colada.

While Instagram’s awash with pooches in designer bandanas and “puppuccinos,” two London designers are embracing the gloriously messy reality of dog ownership. Angelina Pischikova and Karina Zhukovskaya launched mud—a pet care brand that proudly celebrates what dogs do best: get filthy. Their first product is an everyday wash made with plant-based ingredients and smelling like… nothing. Because dogs don’t want to smell like a candle shop.

The brand’s genius lies in its reactive design: a logo that changes with local weather and packaging printed in thermal ink that vanishes when wet and reappears when dry (just like your rug after a muddy paw parade). With punchy slogans like “Filth is freedom,” mud’s earthy palette and unfiltered photography push back against the polished world of modern pet care. It’s a reminder that great branding doesn’t sanitize. It reflects real life, muddy paws and all.

3. How to overthink a volume button.

What if adjusting your speaker volume required a blood sacrifice and three forms of government ID? Reddit designers are on the case. Forget simple sliders, we’re talking volume controls via CAPTCHA puzzles, voice-activated knobs that only respond to a perfectly hummed 440Hz, and settings locked behind differential equations. It’s digital sadism that could make even the most zen user rage-quit their device.

But beneath the absurdity lies a sharp critique of our industry’s obsession with innovation. Everyone wants to disrupt, and now more people can, thanks to accessible design tools. But rarely do we ask if we should. The humble volume control is basically the doorknob of UX: functional, intuitive, and perfectly fine as-is. Sometimes, the most radical move a designer can make is choosing not to mess with what already works.